Eva Gore-Booth
Eva Selina Laura Gore-Booth (22 May 1870 - 30 June 1926) was an Irish poet and playwright, a committed suffragist, social worker, and labour activist. Life Gore-Booth was born at Lissadell House, co. Sligo, the younger sister of Constance Gore-Booth, later known as the Countess Markievicz. Both she and Constance, who later became a prominent Irish revolutionary, reacted against their privileged background and devoted themselves to helping the poor and disadvantaged. In 1895, Eva became seriously ill with threatened tuberculosis. In the following year, while convalescing in Italy, she met and fell in love with Esther Roper at the villa of Scottish writer George MacDonald. Roper was the daughter of Edward Roper, a factory hand who later became a missionary, and Annie Roper, the daughter of Irish immigrants. Esther identified as half Irish. By 1896 Esther had been secretary of the North of England Society for Women's Suffrage for 4 years. Eva returned briefly to her home at Lissadell and established a Sligo branch of the Irish Women's Suffrage and Local Government Association. Within months Eva rejected her privileged lifestyle and went to live in Manchester with Esther. They later became joint secretaries of the Women's Textile and Other Workers Representation Committee. In 1901 and 1902, Eva collected 67,000 signatures from textile workers, on a petition for womens' suffrage. In 1916 Eva and Esther established a radical journal entitled Urania, which expressed their pioneering views of gender and sexuality.Sonja Tiernan, ‘“No Measures of Emancipation or Equality Will Suffice:” Eva Gore-Booth’s Radical Feminism in the journal Urania’ in editor(s) Sarah O’Connor and Christopher C. Shepard, Women, Social and Cultural Change in Twentieth Century Ireland. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008, pp166-82. In the aftermath of the 1916 Rising Eva was instrumental in the campaign to secure the reprieve of her sister, who had been sentenced to death for her involvement. Along with Alice Stopford Green she also took part in the unsuccessful campaign for the reprieve of Roger Casement.Lewis. Eva was also an accomplished poet. Her first published volume was highly praised by Yeats. After World War I, Eva and Esther became members of the Committee for the Abolition of Capital Punishment and worked for prison reform. As she grew older, Eva was forced to give up active work but continued writing poetry. Esther took care of her throughout her long illness and they were together at the end. Eva died in 1926 at her home in Hampstead, London. After Eva's death, Esther collected many of her poems for publication and wrote a biographical introduction to them. Esther was extremely reticent, and little is known of her final years. Constance wrote of her: "The more one knows her, the more one loves her, and I feel so glad Eva and she were together, and so thankful that her love was with Eva to the end." Recognition Yeats wrote the poem. "In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz," about Eva Gore-Booth and her sister. Publications Poetry *''Poems''. London: Longmans, Green, 1898. * Unseen Kings. London: Longmans, Green, 1904. *''The One and the Many. London: Longmans, Green, 1904. *''The Egyptian Pillar. Dublin: Maunsel, 1907. *''The Agate Lamp. London: Longmans, Green, 1912. *''The Perilous Light. London: Macdonald, 1915. *''Broken Glory''. Dublin: Maunsel, 1918. *''The Shepherd of Eternity''. London: Longmans, Green, 1925. *''The House of Three Windows''. London: Longmans, Green, 1926. *''Poems of Eva Gore-Booth''. London: Longmans, Green, 1929. Plays *''The Sorrowful Princess. London: Longmans, Green, 1907. *Unseen Kings. London: Longmans, Green, 1904. *''The Three Resurrections and The Triumph of Maeve. London: Longmans, Green, 1905. *''The Sword of Justice''. London: Headley, 1918. *''The Inner Kingdom''. London: Longmans, Green, 1926. *''The World's Pilgrim''. London: Longmans, Green, 1927. *''The Buried Life of Deirdre''. London: Longmans, Green, 1930. *''The Plays of Eva Gore-Booth'' (edited by Frederick S. Lapisardi). San Francisco, CA: Mellen, 1991. Non-fiction *''Women Workers and Parliamentary Representation''. Manchester, UK: Lancashire and Cheshire Women Textile and Other Workers' Representation Committee, 1904. *''Women's Right to Work, Women's Trade and Labour Council''. Manchester and Salford, England, 1908. *''Religious Aspects of Non-Resistance''. London: League for Peace and Freedom, 1915. *''Select Passages Illustrating Florentine Life in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries''. London: Society for Promotion of Christian Knowledge, 1920. *''A Psychological and Poetic Approach to the Study of Christ in the Fourth Gospel''. London: Longmans, Green, 1923. Edited *Constance Markievicz, Prison Letters. London: Longmans, Green, 1934. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.Eva Gore-Booh 1870-1926, Poetry Foundation, Web, July 21, 2012. See also * List of Irish poets References *Gifford Lewis, ‘Booth, Eva Selina Gore- (1870–1926)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 29 July 2006 Notes External links ;Poems *"The Little Waves of Breffny" in A Book of Women's Verse * Eva Gore-Booth 1870-1929 at the Poetry Foundation * Eva Gore-Booth in the ''Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse: "The Quest," "Harvest," "Form" ;About *Eva Gore-Booth at Spartacus Educational. Category:1870 births Category:1926 deaths Category:Irish poets Category:Irish Anglicans Category:Lesbian writers Category:British suffragists Category:People from County Sligo Category:Women poets Category:Irish women writers Category:Women of the Victorian era Category:People of the Edwardian era Category:Irish suffragists Eva